Most companies today understand the importance of employee engagement, but what they’re learning is that employee engagement transcends full-time employees to include contingent workers. In the most recent “Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements Survey” by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5.9 million US workers are classified as contingent. In a workforce made up increasingly of contingent workers, temporary worker engagement is important to get right.

This year, my company was honored to have been the Grand Prize Winner in Staffing Industry Analysts’ Best Staffing Firm to Temp For/Contract For competition, based on the survey responses of our consultants.

So, what’s our secret? To maintain a network of highly engaged temporary workers, here are our best practices and philosophies: Be of service, take responsibility, and embrace continuous learning — these are just a few of our core values, but they’re not values we only hold for ourselves; we also look for them in the people we do business with. The feedback we receive about our consultants tells a story of commitment, reliability and leadership — qualities not every consultant approaches a temporary or project-based assignment with, but that we look for early on in the same way we look to assess hard skills.

Accountability. Set expectations early and hold each other accountable. One of the first pieces of information we gather from consultants interested in working with us is references. Because of the emphasis we place on relationships, having references who can attest to their work history and performance is important, which is why we get them early and check them early. Emphasis is placed on how references work in our process, but we also use this first interdependent ask as a benchmark to the relationship we’re aiming to build with each consultant. Here, trust is established, and expectations can either be reset if the initial deadline is missed or rewarded by moving the consultant along in the onboarding process. Having defined processes means everyone knows what is being asked of them.

The long game. A temporary mindset leads to temporary relationships — make it a career-long journey. No matter the length of the engagement, having long-term vision matters. In an especially tight talent market, like in IT, the relationships we have with our consultants often come full circle; we’ve had consultants become clients and clients become consultants. Approach the relationship with the right intentions and there’s no telling where it will grow. Transactional behaviors, like not getting to know people beyond their résumés or placing consultants on projects and not following up with them, are an easy way to limit the relationship. The energy and effort put into consultants is often reciprocated — make it about the relationship first and everyone will win.

Meaningful interactions. One of the themes that continues to appear in the feedback we gather from our consultants is that they feel like we care. And that’s because we do. Nothing beats showing up and caring, and that’s why we do both. We endeavor to know as much about the consultants we work with as we do about each other, so we know things like what time they go in to work and when they leave, where they’re from and where they hope to retire to, what their kids do for sports and where they’re going to school, and what they like to do for fun on the weekends and what their hobbies are. Being authentic and human will always be in style.

Ask for feedback. In addition to formal surveys, we also have our consultants provide reviews after projects are completed or after key milestones when assignments are longer term. Pausing to reflect on how things are going is important for engagement but also so that everyone feels heard and improvements can be made. Providing clear escalation pathways where feedback can be given is also great for accountability.